>> 29 May 2004

Barry White Laments

In today's Belfast Telegraph Barry White regrets the way the the more extreme parties in Northern Ireland have taken control of the agenda. He believes that there is little future in the 'moderate centre ground' of Ulster politics.

It is at times like this when I just love schadenfreude. As I recall, White was one of the foremost defenders of the Belfast Agreement during the late 1990's, and frequently ridiculed those of us who predicted that political arrangements which entrenched sectarian identities and gave endless concessions to the men of violence would, eventually, polarise politics in a way never seen hitherto. We were called 'extremists' and labelled with the ultimate insult of being 'anti-peace'. Yet, anti-agreement Unionists were simply saying 6 years ago what the naive are saying now.